5 Royal Pains

<p>Even though Antonio shared his plan with his consort, the plan still worked. After his encounter with his sire's wife in the feeding room and the subsequent talk he had with his consort, he went to visit King Drake to report the infraction. The 'queen' was much younger than both the Duke and King. That is not mentioning that she was turned by accident when the king was trying to break her in as a consort and she held no real power despite her arrogance. If the king needed to be rid of her, Antonio would be her executioner but the queen did not seem to realize this. She never learned her place was beneath the king and seemed to view herself as his equal. Only Antonio was close to being his equal, in King Drake's eyes.<br/>During one of their many wars with other non-human factions, Antonio had let his honor override his judgement and defended a pack of werewolves who were in danger because the members of the pack responsible for protecting them were busy fighting the war. Antonio was nearly torn apart and burned to ash in the fight, which lasted through the first light of dawn. However, for putting aside hostile feelings and doing what was right, Antonio won favor with the Fae who finished what he started and healed him, giving him several blessings. Antonio and King Drake were made to be both perfect vampires and almost total opposites. Antonio was given a slight immunity to several vampiric weaknesses that grew with time to the point where he could almost daywalk, he also regained several human characteristics which served to emphasize his turnblood status and kept him from looking as undead as he was. In the time that had passed since his defense of werewolves won him a fae blessing, he has grown to be equal in power to his sire.<br/>As the second oldest vampire in the world, Antonio was uniquely entitled to his sire's time whenever he wanted. None of the other vampires the king sired had that right, including his wife. The leaders of other non-human factions were lucky to get an audience within a week of putting in a request. If they put in the request and an issue came to the king's attention from another vampire, their lessers were likely to get that audience sooner than expected.<br/>Walking up to King Drake in his study, Antonio told him, "You need to consider letting go of your latest bride."<br/>"Hello, Antonio. What's she done now?" Antonio recounted how the woman his sire accidentally consummated a marriage with tried to steal his consort in training even after seeing he had already bitten the human. King Drake sighed. "I cannot just get rid of her."<br/>"She's still young."<br/>"That she is."<br/>"The consummation was unobserved and no ceremony has been performed."<br/>"Also true."<br/>"Training is still an option, as is annulment."<br/>"You make an excellent point but this does not solve your problem."<br/>"Training does."<br/>King Drake thought about it. He could restrict her access in order to train her properly and during training, sires were expected to treat those sired much harsher than they ever would afterwards. However, this often caused young vampires to plot against their sires. "How do you propose I go about it?"<br/>"Keep her locked in a room with just a bed and withhold food for bad behavior. You could also restrict her access to feeders afterwards, teach her not to drink too much."<br/>"I will try it your way."<br/>"If the training doesn't take, just say the word and you'll be a bachelor again, my king."<br/>"Will do."<br/>The queen learned her place and Jack continued to grow into a beautiful young man. The attraction grew stronger as his brain associated his master's bite with pleasure. Antonio knew that in no time, Jack would seek him out for pleasure. The plan always worked.</p>